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Abstract

A communication method and packet switching system in which packets comprising logical addresses and voice/data information are communicated through the system by packet switching networks which are interconnected by high speed digital trunks with each of the latter being directly terminated on both ends by trunk controllers. During initial call setup of a particular call, central processors associated with each network in the desired route store the necessary logical to physical address information in the controllers which perform all logical to physical address translations on subsequent packets of the call. Each network comprises duplicated arrays with each array having stages of switching nodes which are responsive to the physical address associated with a packet by a controller to communicate this packet to a designated subsequent node. Each trunk controller alternately transmits packets to available ones of the duplicated arrays as the packets are received from the attached trunk. If an array is unavailable for a time interval specified at initialization time by the associated processor, an affected trunk controller detects and transmits this fact to the associated processor via a maintenance message. Each trunk controller provides variable packet buffering and signaling protocols for each of the arrays in order to facilitate the transfer of packets from the arrays to the attached trunk.

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First Claim